


error: file not found

by cerago



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Multi, alex pov but also written as a java file basically, if only actual java files were ninety percent comments so they were human readable, please do not try to learn any actual coding from this most of it isn't correct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-23 12:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16619072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerago/pseuds/cerago
Summary: That's the trick to computers, the first thing they'll teach you in any computer science class: computers are stupid. They do exactly what you tell them to do. Put a list of numbers through a quicksort and it'll spit out those same numbers, cleanly ordered lowest to highest, every single time.Put six runaways in an abandoned underground mansion and, well. That one's a little more up in the air.





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**Author's Note:**

> i haven't written a complete fic literally ever but whenever i space out at the job i just started where i eat sleep and vape code i think about marvel's runaways on hulu and this was the product of that unholy union

_package la.brentwood.runaways;_

 

/**

Computers make more sense than people. Everything is so tumultuous right now that Alex isn't sure of a lot of things, but he's pretty solid on this one.

That's the trick to computers, the first thing they'll teach you in any computer science class: computers are stupid. They do exactly what you tell them to do. Put a list of numbers through a quicksort and it'll spit out those same numbers, cleanly ordered lowest to highest, every single time.

Put six runaways in an abandoned underground mansion and, well. That one's a little more up in the air.

**/

 

_class Runaways {_

 

/*   When they first discovered the truth about their parents, Alex ended up their leader, for a while. And he considers himself pretty socially competent, but there's always that possibility of a user error that just wasn’t accounted for.

The thing is, user errors are different than programmer errors. Alex is used to the latter: they’re unavoidable, when you write a lot of code, and he’s good at handling them. Programmer errors are easy. It’s simple to find places in code where it might run out of memory, or where the thing you’re looking for might not exist, and errors like this are usually quick fixes. Wrap your code in a null check and you’re good to go.

User error, though, is something that needs to be planned for when you’re _designing_ your code, because users are unpredictable. Except no matter how many scenarios you plan for there will always be something that slips through the cracks and brings the whole thing crashing down.

Take his relationship with Nico, for example: the sort of thing that seemed like it could be encapsulated in a neat loop, but ended up being so much more complicated.   */

 

_private void alex_and_nico() {_

 

/*   At first, Alex didn't even register the try-catch block, didn’t realize that there could be an error egregious enough to abandon the whole thing. He got so wrapped up in the "try" that he forgot to take into account what might happen if they ever got to the "catch", and now he's so caught up in the error handling that he loses Nico’s trust (and with it, his own position of authority in their little group). He's neck deep in the call stack trying to bring the server back from cascading failure, and can only watch while Nico moves on.   */

 

_try {_

_while (nico_cares_about_you) {_

_be_with_nico(alex);_

_}_

_}  catch (User_Exception alex_is_a_liar) {_

_nico_and_karolina();_

_throw new User_Exception(alex);_

_}_

_}_

 

/*   Maybe, though, it was always going to end up like this, with Nico letting herself fall and Karolina always just _there_ , waiting patiently to catch her. Alex will sometimes watch the way Nico looks at Karolina and think about how this feels significant, somehow. Like the two of them are a function in some core library, and no matter what your code is trying to do it'll eventually find its way there.    */

 

_protected void nico_and_karolina() {_

_while (true) {_

 

/*   He catches a glimpse of Nico’s expression one night, taking Karolina's hand as they depart up to their shared bedroom. The amount of raw affection in her eyes, the way Karolina leans easily into her - it feels inevitable.    */

 

_fall_for_karolina(nico);_

 

/*   And sometimes Karolina will come down in the morning with hickeys she only sort of tries to hide behind her hair (Nico had one too, once, barely peeking out from under the collar of her shirt) and Alex can't look either of them in the eye for an hour or two. On these mornings, he'll hide himself behind his laptop and try to focus on hacking into PRIDE, try to clear his mind of metaphorical core library functions and a girl with dark eyes that never looked at him the way she does at a girl with rainbows at her fingertips.    */

 

_be_with_nico(karolina);_

_}_

_}_

 

/*   Gert and Chase are another story entirely.    */

 

_protected boolean gert_and_chase(boolean resolved, int attempt_number) {_

 

/*   If Nico and Karolina are straightforward and inevitable, Gert and Chase are recursive. Eventually, you know the function will resolve itself, but it's anybody's guess how many iterations it will take to get there. And if it turns out the logic isn't quite right, well. It’ll get caught in an endless loop, calling itself forever and never reaching any sort of conclusion at all.    */

 

_if (resolved) {_

_// Base case: there's a return value - a solution - and the function won't be called anymore._

_System.out.print("Gert and Chase got their shit together after " + attempt_number + " attempts!");_

_be_together(gert, chase);_

_return true;_

_}_

 

/*   Watching them flit nervously around one another is like watching someone else try to write code in a language you've never heard of and they barely know. Every time they try to run the program, it breaks because they don't know the right syntax or used pointers wrong or even just made a dumb typo, and they can’t for the life of them figure out how to make it work the next time around. It's the sort of thing that's impossible offer any help for but nonetheless excruciating to watch.

So Alex doesn’t: instead he buys a _"DANGER: Gamma Radiation Site"_ sign to keep hikers away from the hostel, and jacks power from the nearest electrical tower so they at least have some light, and stays silent when Gert storms off and Chase is left looking like his five hour build failed because he forgot to match up the brackets properly.   */

 

_// This will probably be false._

_resolved = get_shit_together(gert, chase);_

 

/*   So, yeah. Alex and Nico and Karolina may be a mess, tangled up in exceptions and errors and unexpected lines of code, but Gert and Chase are arguably worse, caught in a recursive loop that’s only getting deeper and deeper.    */

 

_return gert_and_chase(resolved, attempt_number + 1);_

_}_

 

/*   To his surprise, Alex finds himself connecting with Molly. It makes sense, in a way - they're the only two on their team not trying to navigate a blossoming relationship along with their newfound runaway status. It's more than that, though.

Molly may be younger than the rest of them, but - maybe it's _because_ she's younger and doesn't feel quite the same sense of responsibility for keeping them alive, maybe because her parents seem like they were a little better than everyone else's, or maybe it's just something about her - she has a clarity the rest of them don't.  */

 

_protected Family molly() {_

 

/*   Sure, Molly is just as scared as everyone else; maybe even more so, since she has new mysterious powers and doesn't even have a maybe-alien father to explain their origin.

But at the same time she holds them all together. She cracks jokes, and dresses in increasingly ridiculous outfits she insists are fashionable, and talks Gert through her anxiety attacks, and uses her newfound strength to single handedly clear away a lot of the rubble in the hostel so they can all have bedrooms.   */

 

_learn_new_superpowers(molly, karolina);_

_tell_dad_jokes(molly, chase);_

_wear_clothes_that_are_NOT_undercover(molly, nico);_

_offer_familial_comfort(molly, gert);_

_make_hostel_livable(molly, alex);_

 

/*   Molly, Alex decides, is their team’s equivalent of a constructor - she's what's necessary in order for anything else to get done. Nico may be their de facto leader, but Molly is the one holding their little group together.   */

 

_return new Family(molly, gert, chase, karolina, nico, alex, old_lace);_

_}_

_}_

**Author's Note:**

> listen i KNOW java uses camelcase and not underscores and also the indentations are all wrong but it was more readable this way o k
> 
> sorry if this was incomprehensible i tried
> 
> hmu on tumblr @nicosmiinoru to cry abt s2


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